Hand grips are compact and portable lever-type devices that you squeeze in order to build up arm strength and muscle. Athletes mainly use them to increase their ability to excel at their chosen sport. Most sports involve the concept of moving weights or transferring the power of your body through the hands. Hand grips allow you to build up your lower arms, and this works to make you a better athlete, whether your sport is football, martial arts, weightlifting, baseball or even golf. Many of these sports depend on high lower arm strength, and working out with hand grips helps you develop this strength. Here are four benefits of using hand grips:
1. More Forearm Muscularity
If you have ever wanted forearms that look impressive and bigger than most other men, you should work out with hand grips. The principle works in this fashion. Muscles that are situated in your forearms are the ones controlling your fingers. Your forearm flexors control the closing of your hand, while your forearm extensors control the opening. These muscles will be the primary beneficiaries of using hand grips.
2. Hand Endurance
Your hand endurance is automatically increased when you work out with hand grips, because you are increasing the quantity of force that your hands can apply. Another way that your hand endurance gets a big boost is in the length of time that you can apply force. As you work with hand grips, you can train yourself to apply pressure for longer periods of time. A practical area for which this provides instant benefits is, for instance, when you are carrying things like suitcases or heavy bags. After building up your hand endurance for a while, you will notice how you will not as easily succumb to fatigue from carrying them around.
3. Increased Hand Strength
The third benefit of hand grips is increased hand strength, where you train to increase the power of both your fingers and your wrists. Increased hand strength will help you out in areas like the gym, where you can then hold on to weights for longer periods of time. In other areas such as tennis, you will find that you will be able to significantly swing the racquet with more power. Activities like gymnastics and climbing are areas where having increased hand strength will be particularly important, too, as you must support your body weight with only your grip.
4. Improved Dexterity
Hand grips will work to build up your fingers independently, thus improving dexterity. Musicians sometimes work their fingers by using spring-loaded hand grips in order to make sure they can deftly build up enough strength in each finger to confidently apply just the correct quantity of pressure on their instruments. Typists can also benefit from improved dexterity.